Lemon Tea

During my tea bag days I would love to drink lemon tea! But the closest Adagio has is lemon grass! What about creating a lemon/citrus tea? I loved it since it was refreshing, slightly acidic and wonderful hot or iced!

True, there is a lemon flavored black tea, but from the original post, Caletara may be looking for an herbal tea. If that's the case, there isn't really a citrus herbal tea here that would be suitable. FWIW, I personally find that flavored black teas tend to smell more than they taste, so I generally don't buy them that much (except for chai which does have a good flavor from the strong spices).

yeah, theres no lemon herbal! I try and stay away from black flavored tea. I kind of figure that if i wanted to drink lemon or jasmine, tea, id drink it, rather than having it flavored black. But somes the black flavored tea is good! It just depends on what your looking for. Id love to see an herbal lemon tea

teamuse wrote:you know...a while ago, adagio did have a lemon herbal called "spicy lemon" but i guess it wasn't other folks favorite either...it wasn't bad, just not the taste i was looking for.

I miss the Spicy Lemon! I'd love to see another citrus (or several!) citrus flavored herbals....lemon, lemon/lime, or even a lemon/lime/grapefruit combo might be nice! Oooh....key lime or meyer's lemon!! That would rock!

LadyArden wrote:If you really want a lemon herbal just chop up some lemons and add to hot water. It would be fresher and cheaper if you want just lemons not lemongrass or lemon-flavored black.

With most lemon teas, what you are actually infusing are dried lemon peels.

The citrus oil is in the skin (not the white part, the colored part on the very outside). While it might be nasty straight, it imparts a very strong taste for a relatively small amount.

If you want the taste of lemon tea, I doubt that just cutting up fresh lemons would have the same result (although it would certainly be lemony, if that's what you're after). But here are a couple of ideas:
zest a lemon, and steep the lemon zest
buy lemon citrus oiljust use fresh lemon peels
dry your own lemon peels

Having not tried any of those, I can't really say which one would work best. I'm concerned about the fresh lemon peels, because I'm not sure whether or not the rind would introduce any flavor prior to being dried (or maybe that's just crazy talk). I am personally inclined to think that lemon zest would result in the best flavor, but I tend to like lemon zest in a lot of recipes, so YMMV. Just drink whatever tastes best to you. Whether it tastes like the original lemon tea or better.

[quote="yresimIf you want the taste of lemon tea, I doubt that just cutting up fresh lemons would have the same result (although it would certainly be lemony, if that's what you're after). But here are a couple of ideas:
zest a lemon, and steep the lemon zest
buy lemon citrus oiljust use fresh lemon peels
dry your own lemon peels

~Yresim~[/quote]

Essential Oils are not meant for ingesting. Just use a lemon rind. Be sure not to oversteep (which of course depends on your personal taste) as the oil in the rnid can taste acidic if oversteeped.

I find adding lemon zest is a fun way to perk up green tea and black teas!

There are several essential oils out there, including at new age stores, which are for boiling away in little things in water with tea lights (know what i'm talking about?) and shouldn't even be used as perfume until it's dilluted with mineral oil or olive oil. These really shouldn't be eaten. My mother has a ton of these oils and she's the one who gave me the above advice on them when i got my own. Haven't seen one of those in lemon though. Hmmmm.... i'll just have to look around.